Should You Forget Palantir and Buy These 2 Tech Stocks Instead?

By Geoffrey Seiler – Mar 14, 2026 at 1:57PM ESTKey PointsPalantir is hitting on all cylinders, but its stock is very pricey. ServiceNow is tightly ingrained in its customers' data and is seeing strong AI growth.Salesforce has positioned itself as a launchpad for agentic AI. It's been a tough year in the software space, but one stock that has shone is Palantir Technologies (PLTR 1.65%). While most software-as-a-service (SaaS) stocks have seen steep sell-offs, Palantir shares have doubled in value over the past year. Meanwhile, the company has been on a tear, with it reporting 10 straight quarters of accelerating revenue growth. Palantir cut its teeth as a leading government defense contractor; its Gotham platform can gather and analyze data from a large array of sources and help unearth prospective threats. The U.S. government remains its largest customer, and this business continues to grow at a brisk pace. The company continues to win new contracts, and last quarter saw its U.S. government revenue climb 66% year over year to $570 million. Image source: Getty Images. However, Palantir's biggest growth engine has been the U.S. commercial sector, where its revenue surged 137% last quarter to $507 million. The company's secret sauce is its Foundry Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), which gathers data and puts it into an ontology, linking that data to real-world assets and processes from which customers can then apply the AI model of their choice. AI models need clean, structured data to avoid giving wrong information (called hallucinating), so AIP has become a much-needed AI operating system of sorts. ExpandNASDAQ: PLTRPalantir TechnologiesToday's Change(-1.65%) $-2.54Current Price$150.96Key Data PointsMarket Cap$361BDay's Range$148.59 - $154.5552wk Range$66.12 - $207.52Volume1.8MAvg Vol49MGross Margin82.37% While the company is hitting on all cylinders, its stock is very expensive, trading at a forward price-to-sales multiple of 51.5 times and a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 118 times. That makes it hard to buy up here, so let's look at two beaten-down SaaS stocks that could be better buys. ServiceNow With a forward P/S ratio of 8 and a forward P/E of 30, ServiceNow (NOW +0.51%) is considerably less expensive than Palantir. At the same time, it is generating strong revenue growth, with its subscription revenue climbing 21% last quarter. Meanwhile, the stock has been swept up in the SaaS sell-off, and it's trading down more than 20% over the past year. ExpandNYSE: NOWServiceNowToday's Change(0.51%) $0.58Current Price$113.55Key Data PointsMarket Cap$119BDay's Range$111.73 - $115.8652wk Range$98.00 - $211.48Volume550KAvg Vol18MGross Margin77.53% While ServiceNow has been caught up in the narrative that AI could hurt SaaS businesses, it is one of the most integral enterprise software platforms out there that is deeply intertwined with its customers' data. The company's platform unites an organization's workflow, combining information technology, human resources, and customer service, with years of security permissions, customized business rules, and audit trails built in. That makes its platform not only sticky, but also a great environment for AI. ServiceNow is seeing strong growth from AI, with its generative AI suite of solutions, Now Assist, hitting $600 million annual contract value (ACV) and on pace to grow to over $1 billion by year-end. Meanwhile, it's looking to become an orchestration platform for agentic AI with its Control Tower platform. Given its sticky platform and strong AI growth opportunities, ServiceNow is a top SaaS stock to own.

Salesforce Like ServiceNow, Salesforce (CRM 3.44%) stock has also gotten caught up in the SaaS selling. The stock is down more than 25% over the past year, which has brought down Salesforce's valuation to a forward P/S multiple of less than 4 times and a forward P/E of 15 times. ExpandNYSE: CRMSalesforceToday's Change(-3.44%) $-6.86Current Price$192.42Key Data PointsMarket Cap$178BDay's Range$191.75 - $200.6752wk Range$174.57 - $296.05Volume548KAvg Vol12MGross Margin75.28%Dividend Yield0.86% Salesforce's platform is also tightly interwoven with its customer data, and its acquisition of master data management company Informatica and the launch of Data 360, which can also pull in data from cloud computing and data warehousing providers, helps position it as its customers' master of records. As discussed with Palantir, AI needs clean, structured data, so Salesforce is then using its platform as the launch pad to become an agentic AI leader through its AgentForce platform. It's already seeing strong growth in this area with its AgentForce's annual recurring revenue (ARR) soaring 169% to $800 million last quarter. Overall, Salesforce is growing its revenue in the low double digits and is projecting more than 10% compound annual growth through fiscal 2030. That makes the stock a great GARP (growth at a reasonable price) name to own. Read NextMar 13, 2026 •By Adam Spatacco3 AI Stocks Caught in the Crossfire of the Iran War, and What Smart Investors Should Do in 2026Mar 13, 2026 •By Adria CiminoPalantir Stock Isn't Cheap, But It Might Still Be a BargainMar 12, 2026 •By Keith SpeightsCould Buying Palantir Technologies Today Set You Up for Life?Mar 12, 2026 •By Harsh ChauhanWhy March Could Be a Turning Point for Palantir StockMar 12, 2026 •By Danny Vena, CPAPalantir and Nvidia Join Forces to Tackle This $600 Billion OpportunityMar 12, 2026 •By Sean Williams2 of the Most Sought-After AI Stocks Can Plunge Up to 68%, According to Select Wall Street AnalystsAbout the AuthorGeoffrey Seiler is a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst covering technology, consumer goods, healthcare, energy, and materials stocks. Prior to The Motley Fool, Geoffrey was a senior equity analyst at Raging Capital Management, a $600 million long-short hedge fund. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Haverford College.TMFFindProfitStocks MentionedPalantir TechnologiesNASDAQ: PLTR$150.96(-1.65%)-$2.54SalesforceNYSE: CRM$192.42(-3.44%)-$6.86ServiceNowNYSE: NOW$113.55(+0.51%)+$0.58*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.